i don't agree with you on that at all. a definite influence, not just the vocal, the music had a definite postpunk feel when i saw the at the notting hill dis gig. having got the two albums i find it hardto believe that the fall could have come up with something as beautifully poetic as the track 'northern' about the lake district. totally different subject matter for a start. and this scarborough fair download is nothing like the fall.

I'm not saying that the vocals don't sound to an extent like Mark E Smith. But that's the vocalists natural accent. In fact, I'd say his vocals are a lot more genuine than many other bands whose vocalists put on, say, an American or mid-Atlantic accent. What's he supposed to do, speak in a Brummie accent instead? In a Somerset accent? If you're Northern and you sing, you get compared to dozens of singers, but if you choose spoken word, then you get compared to Mark E Smith.....and that's it. Perhaps John Cooper Clarke as well. Mark E Smith doesn't own the rights to Northern accents.
Secondly, your crap about influences. Influences are usually very good bands...that's why they're influences. I can hear Can, Fela Kuti, Pere Ubu, Jon Hassell, Miles Davis etc in OMG. There's no shame in not being as good as these influences. Most acts do not surpass their influences. However, I feel that One More Grain, musically, stamped their own identity on their music, mixing the the exotic with the very English. Just reading some of the assorted reviews their albums got shows that others thought the same. To just hear it and dismiss it as ripping off the Fall is a narrow-minded knee-jerk reaction. Vocally, yes similarity, but musically I wouldn't say so. I'd say that XX Teens sound much more like The Fall myself.